Good morning and welcome everybody. Today we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture but before we do that I wanted to ask you a question.
Have you ever decided to do a small building project, or to make a dog house? Our children have always liked building things out of scrap wood but there are certain tools that they always need to keep in their inventory, if they are going to complete the task. They ask for a hammer, some nails, and a saw. Without a hammer you can’t pound the nails. Without the nails you cannot fasten the wood together. Without a saw you cannot cut the lumber to the proper size. You’ve got to have all three of these things to get the job done.
This reminds me of the Christian Life because our faith is based on possessing specific tools in our spiritual toolbox. Confession, remission and reconciliation. If one of these items is missing, the project cannot be completed. Do you like to go fishing? To catch sunfish, you need a string, a hook, and a worm. To go sailing you need a boat, a sail, and a rudder. To obtain salvation we need confession, forgiveness and reconciliation. Without one of these three items, people will come short of eternal life.
When you say the word “car“, it is a broad term that consists of the motor, the body, and its frame. When we say “forgiveness”, it is a broad term that consists of confession, remission, and reconciliation. You cannot separate these three because they are all parts of forgiveness as a whole.
Confession
When you confess, you admit to doing something wrong.
If we sin against God or others, we are to confess our faults, and humbly apologize for our shortcomings. An apology is a simple admission of fault. Just saying the words “I repent” or “I’m sorry” is a simple admission that shows that you accept that you did something wrong. It shows that you “own up” for the mistake that was committed. God wants us to make a very simple confession so that we can obtain remission of sins. He doesn’t make it difficult, and makes our burden light. He wants us to come boldly unto Him confessing our faults.
In the Lord’s Prayer, confession for faults is simplified into four words.
Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts………
The confession of the humble publican consisted of only seven words.
Luke 18:13-14 …..God be merciful to me a sinner.
The Lord Jesus simplified confession into two words.
Luke 17:4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
The world’s form of forgiveness doesn’t want to accept a simple apology like these. They want you to somehow work off your sin debt. This is because they really don’t understand how incredibly merciful our God is.
Another point is that apologizing to others in the church as needed, is a requirement of the Christian Life. If someone refuses to apologize, you want to make sure that it is well documented and that other people are present. After a few attempts, if they continue to reject giving a simple apology, you are to have nothing to do with them, treating them as a publican or a heathen. In that state they are rejecting one of the integral tools of our faith: confession. In that mindset, they are bound in a state of unforgiveness with God. It’s sad how cold-hearted people can be, especially people who profess to be followers of Christ.
Remission
After apologies are made, The Christian faith teaches us to bear one another’s burdens which means that you need to grant remission to others from your heart. This is what it means to fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Of all laws that have ever been written, this law is one of the greatest because our God of mercy commands people to forgive one another. Just like earthly laws, if people are going to choose to break the law of Christ, punishment is going to follow. If you refuse to grant the gift of remission to others, after all of the things that God has forgiven you for, you provoke God to wrath. Remission is to pardon sins or offenses. Pardon is to absolve from the consequences of a fault and to allow an offense to pass without punishment. Absolved means to set or declare someone free from blame or guilt. This is the way that God treats us when we simply confess our faults to Him. He completely absolves us of our sins. This is the exact same way God wants us to treat one another when someone confesses their fault and apologizes to you.
The refusal to extend that same kind of remission to others, will result in forfeiting any mercy from God. If God won’t forgive you, obviously you won’t see Paradise. This is how serious a matter it is when people apologize, yet you refuse to show mercy to them. No matter what a Christian goes through, they are supposed to be one of the most forgiving and merciful people that you could ever meet. I’ve always said that an unforgivable sin is to refuse to grant remission from the heart, so that reconciliation can take place. God wants reconciliation in the church, and it happens by apologizing and confessing your faults. When you confess, the burden is lifted off of you, and is placed upon the shoulders of the offended person. At that point the “ball is in their court.” Christ commands that they are to forgive and to show mercy. Those who refuse to do this are not only proving themselves to be heretics, but they reject the Christian Life and everything that Jesus stands for.
When someone apologizes, and you tell them verbally, ” I forgive you,” all the sins committed before that point are erased, and deleted, completely forgotten from memory, never to be spoken of again. There are times that certain people will choose to revisit sins from the past that they claim to have forgiven, which only proves that they never really did. It was just words. When God grants us remission for our sins he completely forgets about them because He remembers our sins and our iniquities no more.
Reconcilliation
Reconciliation is the proof that genuine forgiveness has taken place. Someone apologized for their fault, and the other party quickly granted them remission. If these two things have taken place, reconciliation will immediately follow.
When the prodigal son returned home, he apologized for what he had done, and his dad granted him complete remission for all of the sins that he had committed in his past. He didn’t dangle them over his head, or hold them against him. This is called forgiving someone from your heart. When it happens, immediate reconciliation takes place. This story is given as an example of understanding the truth of confession, remission, and reconciliation. Those who cannot see this in this story are blinded by bitterness, and caught in the snare of the devil.
Reconciliation is one of the tools of the Christian faith, because without it you cannot complete the task at hand. Reconciliation is so important that God doesn’t want gifts offered in the church until you reconcile with a brother that you have wronged. (Matt 5:24). If a wife has sinned against Christ by departing from her husband, she needs to recover herself from this sin and be reconciled unto her husband. (1 Cor 7-10-11).
When there’s a refusal to apologize or refusal to grant remission, estrangement can happen. Firstly, If they won’t apologize, you are supposed to have nothing to do with them. That is a justified estrangement because it’s commanded by God. If they refuse to forgive you, they are at enmity with God and rejecting the doctrines of Christ. Estrangement is best defined as a wife who doesn’t live with their husband anymore. When a wife departs her husband, she is violating a command of the Lord. It’s no different than being a murderer or a thief in the sight of God. Just as each of us need to go to God and confess our faults so we can be forgiven, a wife needs to return to her husband, confessing faults to him so that he can forgive her for departing him. The refusal to reconcile affects everybody within the church, because we are all a part of the same body.
The Christian faith is called the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:18) Those who refuse reconciliation cannot even claim to be a part of God’s ministry. We are to preach reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)
Those who refuse to reconcile with others and claim Christianity as their faith are liars. Remember, satan is not going to reconcile with God. He hates the thought of it. His pride forbids it. Sadly, those who refuse reconciliation are like unto him, only left to be punished for all of eternity, inheriting the wrath of a loving and merciful god.
Let’s think about these things for right now, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
tlkjbc.wordpress.com
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 